Real Madrid joins forces with Snapchat ahead of Barcelona showdown

November 18, 2015

The most popular soccer team in the world has teamed up with Snapchat to bring, in the soccer club's words, "fans closer to all the action."

And when Real Madrid faces its biggest rival, F.C. Barcelona, this weekend in the game termed "El Clásico," fans can use the app's Live Story to follow the action. It's the first time a Spanish soccer club has used Snapchat in this way, and considering more than 85 million people like Real Madrid on Facebook and 17.5 million follow the club on Twitter, it's a no-brainer for the app to make this partnership.

"Supporters from all over the world will be able to experience the atmosphere of the clash from their accounts," Real Madrid wrote in a statement. "The agreement enables Snapchatters (users of the application) to create content with filters and official logos of the club."

As Forbes writes, fans watching live from the stadium can submit their Snaps for the chance to be included in the Live Story for the game, which occurs at 11:15am ET on Saturday.

Real Madrid also opened its own Snapchat account, and the team wrote, "Snapchatters will have the opportunity to experience the Real Madrid universe like never before, with the chance to enjoy everything from training sessions at pitch level to every last corner of the arena on matchday."

In the first 12 hours of starting a channel, Rafael de los Santos, Real Madrid's global head of digital, said fans have viewed each story an average of 200,000 times.

“We keep an eye on every single social media network and have seen how Snapchat has been growing and growing in past few months... especially with millennials,” de los Santos said, via Forbes. “...We have 450 million fans around the world. Our goal is to reach every single one of them regardless of whether they are here in Spain, Malibu, or Alaska. This is a content driven deal. Monetization down the road may be an opportunity, but it isn’t driving us right now.”

This won't be the first time an internationally known pro sports league has partnered with Snapchat. In September, the NFL did the same thing with at least one Live Story posted from each Sunday's slate of games.